Her Scandalous Affair
Chapter One
June 1814
"And so you must find the Mallory
Heart and bring it home at once. No
matter what it takes."
Richard Mallory stared at his grandmother in
astonishment. The Countess of Dunstable was a
stately, reserved woman who had never, as far
as he could recall, made a flippant remark or
jest in her life. He had to assume she was quite
serious.
He stood straight and tall as he faced her,
with hands clasped behind his back in a postion of formal ease he had employed so often
when addressing a superior officer. And there
was none more superior than his grandmother.
She sat ramrod stiff on the edge of a gilt French
chair that had seen better days.
"Let me be certain I understand," he said.
"You called me home not because Grandfather
is dying, but because you want me to locate a
family jewel that has been missing these past
fifty years?"
"It is because the earl is dying that the jewel
must be restored to us. He has been most agitated
about it."
"Has he?"
Richard had been raised by his grandparents
from the time both his mother and father perished
in an overturned carriage when he was
still in leading strings. In all those years, he
could remember only a single o ... read full excerpt from: Her Scandalous Affair ebook
